The ubiquitous nature of plastic

Plastic and microplastics are truly omnipresent. There doesn’t seem to be a place left on earth where microplastics haven’t been found. Though certainly not unexpected, the National Geographic recently reported that microplastics have been found in human poop.

Looking at the habits of our current society, the outcome of the study seems an inevitable one waiting to be discovered. It was more of a confirmation of the truth we already expected. Microplastics have so far been found in all sorts of animal in the wild, so what would make us special not to ingest any? It just goes to show that what goes around, comes around.

If this is not a wakeup call, I don’t know what is. Which parent would want their kids growing up eating plastic? Though the effects of microplastics in our body have barely been investigated, chances of it causing no harm are minimal considering its effects on fish found so far. For example, studies have shown that ingestion of microplastics in fish harms their immune system; increasing their vulnerability to pathogens.

Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash

Impossible?

The sheer fact that plastics surround us wherever we go, makes it nearly impossible not to ingest any microplastics these days. Furniture is made of it, curtains, even most of the clothes we wear daily are made of plastic. Any friction of such materials can result in airborn microplastics which are subsequently inhaled or end up on our plate.

Talking about food. Just about everything you find in a regular grocery store is wrapped in plastics these days. Microplastics thicker than our hair have consistently been found in plastic water bottles sold by a wide range of brands situated in 9 different countries. One can imagine what this means for the plastic wrapped food we eat.

Plastics are everywhere, but you can make a change. Have you taken steps to limit the amount of plastics you surround yourself with, yet?

Would you like to learn more about microplastics? We’ve previously written about the topic here.